Templete (El), Havana

It was the inhabitants of 19th century Havana, motivated perhaps by the origins of all around them, who erected this shrine with a bust of Christopher Columbus and three paintings by Juan Bautista Vermay. The monument marks the exact place where the settlement of San Cristóbal de la Habana was founded in 1519. Together with this building, which is one of the first examples of a neo-classical style from the colonial architectural period, also stands a column to represent the original ceiba tree under which the first mass and Council of Havana were held.